BOSTON — Catholic agencies
nationwide have probably placed children with homosexuals for adoption and
foster care more often than officials have acknowledged or may even know.

The controversy is intensifying as
attention focuses on Catholic Charities in Boston and San Francisco, where news
of a small number of adoptions with same-sex couples has forced the issue into
the spotlight.

Other placements may have occurred
through a patchwork of “don’t ask, don’t tell practices” and state laws that
hamstring adoption agencies from following Church teaching. That teaching
prohibits such placements to protect children spiritually, physically and
psychologically.

On March 9, Cardinal William Levada, prefect of the Vatican Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith, reaffirmed that teaching. His directive went to the
Archdiocese of San Francisco, where spokesmen had acknowledged five such
placements since 2000 by Catholic Charities/CYO.

And on March 10, Boston Catholic
Charities announced it will have to stop all adoption placements because of the
bind it’s in. The state dictates it must allow the homosexual placements.

Adam Pertman,
director of the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, a New York-based adoption
advocacy firm, said that “probably all” Catholic agencies have “unknowingly”
facilitated such placements. Some did knowingly, he said. “Many were essentially
employing a variation of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell.’”

Research conducted by his agency
but funded by the Rainbow Endowment, which advocates for same-sex adoption,
found 13% of Catholic agencies accepted applications from homosexuals.

“Adoptions don’t always come about because of policies,
whether of the Vatican or of the agency itself,” Pertman
said. “Some placements are at the discretion of individual case workers.”

According to a December article
titled “Little Catholic Gifts” in The
Advocate, a news magazine for homosexuals, several Catholic Charities
agencies support “gay family building.” But the article’s author cautioned,
“Because policies vary from one Catholic social service agency to another, gay
activists can’t predict that same-sex couples will be welcomed at their local
office.”

Run the Spectrum

Two additional factors contribute
to the scenario.

First, in states like Illinois,
anti-discrimination laws prohibit agencies from asking adoptive parents what
their sexual orientation is. An individual could choose not to volunteer that
information.

And second, almost all states
allow individuals to adopt. Boston Catholic Charities President Father J. Bryan
Hehir, for example, acknowledged March 21 that given
the “don’t ask” policy, it is possible there were placements besides the 13
children the agency placed for adoption with same-sex couples between 1987 and
2005. “There could have been individuals, but with same-sex couples we would
know,” he said.

The issue has become like an
elephant in the living room for some agency officials. The Register asked
Church spokesmen what their social service agencies’ policies are and whether
they had facilitated such placements.

A Philadelphia archdiocesan
spokeswoman said officials are reviewing the issue. Catholic Charities
spokeswomen in New York, Brooklyn, and Santa Fe, N.M., did not respond to
requests for answers.

Chicago Catholic Charities
spokeswoman April Specht declined to answer the
questions but issued a statement saying the agency would both work “within the
teachings of the Catholic Church” and “meet its obligations” under state
contracts.

State regulations mean adoption
agencies “do not document, inquire about, track or judge” the sexual
orientation of parents, said Diane Jackson of the Illinois Department of
Children and Family Services. She did not know the sexual orientation of
parents involved in the 200 adoptions in the last year that Catholic Charities
facilitated for children who were wards of the state.

Washington, D.C., and the states
of New York, New Mexico, Connecticut, New Jersey, Oregon and Vermont also allow
homosexual couples to jointly petition for adoption.

“It’s hard to get a clear picture
nationwide,” said John Keightley, spokesman for
Catholic Charities USA, a network of 137 agencies and 1,300 affiliates. Keightley said that situations run “a spectrum of clear to
muddy. It’s a combination of what states allow and what their laws require.”

Utah allows only heterosexual
married couples to adopt. By contrast, Massachusetts and California make
“non-discrimination” against homosexual couples a licensing requirement.

Other states fall between these
extremes. Archdiocesan spokesmen in Atlanta and Honolulu said laws in Georgia
and Hawaii do not require that agencies allow homosexual placements.

Foster Care

The picture is even cloudier with
foster care. For example, Florida bans adoptions with homosexuals but allows
foster care placements.

“Foster care can go on for years,”
said Chris Slattery, founder of the crisis pregnancy group Expectant Mother
Care, which has 15 offices around New York City. “And, in fact, the impact
could be even greater, because adolescents are more impressionable than babies.
But the moral principal is the same. What is the point of an agency being
Catholic if it’s acting in a morally neutral manner to keep people employed?”

Slattery said he was told several
years ago by Kathleen Polcha, director of maternity
services for New York’s Catholic Home Bureau, that because of city contracts,
her agency “had to accept applications” from homosexuals. But, he stressed that
he could not confirm whether placements occurred.

Polcha said in a phone interview March
20 that her office had done “no domestic infant” adoptions with same-sex
couples, but said “the conflict is with state foster care rules.” Both she and
archdiocesan spokesman Joseph Zwilling referred
questions on this to Catholic Charities spokeswoman Jacqueline Lofaro, who did not reply to requests for a statement.

“I’m not going to place any more
children with Catholic Home Bureau unless they go along with the Vatican
rules,” said Slattery, whose organization aids 4,200 pregnant or post-abortive
women yearly. “If agencies don’t fight these mandates in courts, they will
eventually be forced to place children with homosexuals.

“Often what Catholic agencies are
doing is the same as secular agencies,” Slattery said. “In many cases, the
scandal is that boards are packed with people who are not authentic Catholics.”

The issue of orthodoxy underlies
the controversy. In a clear statement issued March 13, Denver Catholic
Charities President James Mauck affirmed the Church’s
position.

In contrast, eight trustees
resigned from Boston Catholic Charities when Cardinal Sean O’Malley and his
three fellow Massachusetts bishops said Feb. 28 that the agency would conform
to Church teaching.

San Francisco Archbishop George Niederauer said March 17 that Catholic Charities/CYO will no longer place children with homosexuals,
according to spokesman Maurice Healy. But agency director Brian Cahill disputed
Healy’s statement in a March 21 San
Francisco Chronicle interview.

One explanation for this rebellion
within that agency’s ranks could be that several board members and Program
Director Glenn Motola are openly homosexual,
according to a March 20 report in the Catholic online news source IgnatiusInsight.com. The
Advocate reported that Motola and his “partner”
adopted a daughter, though not through Catholic Charities.

The issue plays out like a Rubik’s
Cube of permutations around beliefs, practices and politics. Keightley said Catholic Charities USA will continually
monitor the issue. “If other states enact laws like Massachusetts,” he said,
“the picture will change.”